The Spectacle Blog

“Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied,” is how Falstaff braces Prince Hal in one of the amusing tavern scenes in Henry IV, Part I. If Falstaff had taken better care of himself, and were still around today, it would be on point to make the same observation of our current commander-in-chief. (Leave aside that Hal’s dodgiest company was Falstaff himself.)

I learned this week that there is something called “BuzzFeed,” which apparently appeals to young males who wear their baseball caps backwards and have room temperature IQs. The tone is Three Stooges without the nuances. President Obama went on this sophomoric site, panning and mugging and leaving no doubt that a career in standup is out of the question after he leaves 1600. The justification for this brain-dead performance was Obama was trying to get young Americans to go along with the ObamaCare gag. Anyone dumb enough to tumble to this come-on would need to be watered twice a week.

Pitchers and catchers report to Major League training camps in Florida and Arizona this week, an event fans of the Grand Old Game have looked forward to from the day after Madison Bumgarner & Associates put an end to the Kansas City Royals’ hopes in late October. But my friend Pete, who lives in Southern New Hampshire and is a serious Red Sox fan, is having trouble squaring this blessed event with what he is seeing outside of his living room window.

Apparently Opening Day in Fenway can get underway just as soon as the snow-plows clear the field. And what’s this about salting the baselines? I don’t believe this has ever happened before. Nor has the Sawks’ equipment manager ever before had to issue parkas and snow shoes.

Keep shoveling, Pete. Spring will come, even to Fenway. (Easy enough for me to say from Tampa, where the current temperature is 71 degrees, and snow-jobs come mostly from politicians.)

In Paris, Islamic terrorists shot cartoonists and then went after a Jewish establishment.

Now in Copenhagen, an Islamic terrorist tried to shoot a cartoonist (instead killing one person and injuring three police officers) and now there has been a shooting at a synagogue resulting in one death and two injuries.

As with the shooting at the free speech conference, the shooter also fled the synagogue and remains at large. It's not known if the two attacks are the work of the same assailant or if this is a co-ordinated attack among multiple participants.

A gunman entered the cafe, shot and killed one man while injuring three police officers. The apparent target was Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who has been threatened by jihadists for years after for drawing cartoons of Muhammad. However, Vilks was not harmed.

As of this writing, the assailant is still at large. Witnesses say he spoke Danish.

The only thing that is certain at this point is when President Obama comments on the shooting he will either not mention Islam or say that it has nothing to do with Islam.

President Obama issued a statement announcing that a FBI probe had been launched to investigate the Chapel Hill shootings which claimed the lives of three Muslims.

"No one in the United States of America should be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship," said Obama.

This stands in sharp contrast to Obama's assessment in his interview with Vox that last month's attack in a Jewish grocery store in Paris which claimed the lives of four Jews was random. This despite the fact that the man responsible for the killing called a radio station and stated, "I targeted them because they were Jewish."

Traditionally, the Supreme Court justices have a communal dinner before the State of the Union, probably because, in any given year, with any given President, at least one of them has to be wasted in order to endure the whole State of the Union speech. There are dangers, of course - an unintentional, alcohol-inspired utterance could mean having to recuse yourself from a controversial case - but all of those drawbacks are, no doubt, erased by the promise of a nice California white.

This year, the dinner's victim was unexpected, at least in light of the speech's content. Turns out, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg - the Notorious RBG - wasn't napping during Obama's SOTU speech this year, when the camera caught her head bobbing down to her bejeweled collar. She was just drunk as a skunk.

In a lighthearted moment before an audience at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Thursday night, the 81-year-old Ginsburg cracked up telling the story that she “wasn’t 100 percent sober” before going to the State of the Union.

Frankly, I'm not sure why Nancy Pelosi is even embracing the concept of Valentine's Day. In this dog-eat-dog rape-culture world, the idea of a holiday that promotes any kind of physical affection is almost begging America's male population to "man-spread" themselves across womens' rights. As a woman, I'm offended that someone in a position of power even acknowledges the holiday.

Or something.

Anyway, breaking with her core constituency, Rep. Nancy Pelosi does believe you should get your sweetie something for Valentine's Day, but it shouldn't be a bouquet of roses or a box of chocolates, or even one of those incredibly creepy Fifty Shades of Grey Vermont Teddy bears that come with handcuffs and the sinking feeling that you've lost all of your self respect. Nancy would like you to take your sweetie (gender non-specific, of course) down to your local Obamacare office and sign them up for free government healthcare.

Yesterday, Montana seemed poised to become the first state in the nation to ban yoga pants because, apparently, Montana's male elected leaders were having a hard time focusing with all these leggings-clad women meandering about, distracting them. At least, ostensibly.

The real bill, Montana H.R. 365, which is tabled in committee and will likely die there, was authored in response to a "nude bicycle ride" that got under the skin, pun intended, of David Moore, a Montana rep. The bill was patently unclear as to what it actually banned, but didn't specifically target yoga pants or, for that matter, my cultural arch nemesis, leggings worn as pants. It just happened that David Moore, when asked whether the bill would, in fact, ban the wearing of yoga pants in public, decided to make a very controversial statement.

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